2 CPS coaches, 4 players charged in alleged hazing

Two Chicago high school football coaches and four players were charged in connection with an alleged episode of hazing involving a 14-year-old boy, Chicago police said today.

In the Oct. 18 incident -- reportedly captured on video by one of the coaches -- the older students who are players on Prosser Career Academy's varsity team beat the boy with belts at the school at 2148 N. Long Ave., police said.

The coaches, Tom Cipriani, 47, and Jonathan Manning, 20, were arrrested two days later, along with two 17-year-olds and two 18-year-olds, according to police.

Both coaches and all four players were charged with misdemeanor battery. Manning faces another charge for videotaping the incident, police said.

Neither man was available for comment this morning, but some Prosser players on Monday told WLS-TV that the incident was merely horseplay between the players, adding that the 14-year-old wasn't hurt or bruised in the incident.

Both coaches are barred from the school and face further unspecified action, a CPS spokesman said in an email. The students also face discipline under the student code of conduct.

This makes the second time within a month that city coaches have been connected to an alleged assault on a student.

Earlier this month, two football coaches at Fenger High School were removed from their posts, with the head coach later being charged with misdemeanor assault after an Oct. 1 melee in which some 20 to 30 teens attacked Darion Jones, 16, and his 15-year-old nephew at Jones’ home in the 11800 block of South Wentworth Avenue.

In that case, the head coach was accused of threatening Jones who was accused by one of the coach’s players of stealing a pair of Nike flip flops.